Surgery

When someone in your family needs surgery, it’s perfectly normal to feel anxious. While surgery is not an everyday event for you, it certainly is for the surgeon, nurses, and the other members of the care team.

What type of surgery will you undergo?

Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center offers facilities for both “inpatient” and “outpatient” surgery. Inpatient surgery that means you’ll be taken from the surgery suite to a clinical floor in the hospital to spend the night after your procedure. “Outpatient” or “same-day” surgery means you will be able to go home the same day as the procedure.

Traditional surgery

Traditionally, surgeries have required large incisions. Open surgeries are still performed in some cases — such as open-heart surgery — but many procedures today use minimally invasive techniques.

Laparoscopic surgery

Laparoscopic surgery requires two or three tiny incisions — each usually less than an inch long. The surgeon inserts the laparoscope in one, a lens with an intense light source and video camera outside the patient’s body. Small tubes are inserted into the other incisions where surgical tools for cutting, cauterizing, and suturing can be inserted. The advantages of laparoscopic surgery include less pain due to the smaller incisions, smaller scars, reduced chance of infection, and faster recoveries.

Robotic surgery

A robotic surgery is similar to the laparoscopic procedure. The small incisions are similar, however, instead of the surgeon manipulating the laparoscopic instruments, he sits at a console with a magnified 3-D image of the site. Controls on the console let the surgeon move the instruments with more precision, stability, and dexterity than holding the instruments in their hands. Learn more about robot surgery options